Sunday, April 22, 2012

Dearest teens

To my dearest teenage daughters.  I must offer you my most sincerest of apologies.  Here you are fifteen years old and I have completely failed you in your powers of persuasion.  What I should have taught you is that to not only convince someone into seeing your point of view but to accept it thereby giving you what you desire you must use certain communication techniques.  In not being taught this valuable skill  you have been left to find your own way which has not served you well.

As there is a lot of information to cover and many nuances to understand I will leave you with this first most important piece of information:

When arguing with your mother it is best not to continue to berate her with "please", or "pleeeease" or "puleeeeaaaase" each time she says no to what you are requesting.  When that has failed to win you favour do not then go into argumentative mode whereby you think if you make comments insinuating that she said one thing when she knows for certain that is not the case and how you have done EVERYTHING to change the behaviour that has caused her angst when in fact you had to be called on it once again that day that it will for certain get you what you want.  Especially do not perform the aforementioned with a high degree of snotty tone to your voice (perhaps the most important tip of all). When you think all hope is lost do not and this is a huge DO NOT emphatically exclaim "WHATEVER" and stomp off all the while muttering under your breath as if your mother cannot hear you.  When she states that you should stop said muttering it would be wise to heed that counsel should you want the up and coming privileges in your life.

Again I apologize for neglecting my parental duty of  teaching you this life skill.  I will do better in the future.

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